This is a summarisation of our teams project vision in respons to the course template:
Our vision is to make a really good game that will help us gain contacts in the industry and increase our chances of getting a job. We dont believe we will get rich by doing so however we may turn the game into a somewhat commersial product. To achieve this we aim to incorporate our target audience and people from the industry into our project at an early stage by letting them try out features, evaluate graphics and give us important feedback. When the game is finished we will make it available for our customers via the internet and try and promote the game through various exhibits, competitions and games related media.
fredag 25 september 2009
torsdag 24 september 2009
Short interview with Sam
I did a small interview with a friend that I thought might fit into User profile nbr1, since I wanted to do a sanity check for it. This is what I found out:
This person (we can call him Sam) has a great interest in games. He is somewhere arount 30 years old and lives with his girlfriend. He knows a lot about games and has been playing for about 20 years and works with games professionally.
He keeps an eye on indie scene and tries out games that have been recommended by his friends. The reason why he doesn't try out more indie games is that he thinks that most of them are pretty bad. He doesn't want to risk wasting time om bad games, there are too many other things he wants to spend time on apart from playing games. He has a few sites that he visits and if there's a lot of good things written about an indie game there he might try it out. However, he stresses that word of mouth is the most important factor when he decides if he's going to try out a game or not. Sam thinks it's easiest to buy games at xbox live or at Playstation network. He doesn't mind spending a smaller sum of money to try out new games there.
Even though he says he's never bought as many games as he does now, he also says that he spend less and less time playing them. If they don't immediately catch his interest he will quit and never play them again. Sometimes the games don't even make it out of the box...
It was hard getting Sam to list the titles of games he likes, he said he's played all kinds of games except for MMO:s, and he didn't care much for strategy games. He likes has many games that he really likes but he says that they have to be put into perpective of when they were released. Both his preferences and the games have changed so much that a game he played 10 years ago might not be a game that he would enjoy today.
The games he enjoys most today however are games he can play together with his firends. They meet now and then at someones house and play either single or multiplayer games. If playing single player games, one person will play and the other will watch while chatting with each other. They may take turns being the one who plays.
Mutliplayer games is his favorite type of game since he thinks it's a good alternative to watching a movie or similar. The multiplayer games that Sam and his friends play are mostly competitive, meaning that they play against each other, not against another group via the internet. However, they would very much like to play more games that called for team collaboration. The problem is that not many of those are being made. Sam has a PC and all the newer consoles. When Sam has friends over they mostly play on the xbox360 or PS3 though.
Things that Sam is interested in are gadgets, movies, and other things a tech nerd would enjoy.
So, there is a slight difference here to our preferred user group. Sam mostly plays games on console when he plays together with his friends, but the games they play are competitive and they wish there were more games that required teamwork.
I think it's also worth noting that Sam is a bit sceptic towards indie games since many of them aren't very good.
This person (we can call him Sam) has a great interest in games. He is somewhere arount 30 years old and lives with his girlfriend. He knows a lot about games and has been playing for about 20 years and works with games professionally.
He keeps an eye on indie scene and tries out games that have been recommended by his friends. The reason why he doesn't try out more indie games is that he thinks that most of them are pretty bad. He doesn't want to risk wasting time om bad games, there are too many other things he wants to spend time on apart from playing games. He has a few sites that he visits and if there's a lot of good things written about an indie game there he might try it out. However, he stresses that word of mouth is the most important factor when he decides if he's going to try out a game or not. Sam thinks it's easiest to buy games at xbox live or at Playstation network. He doesn't mind spending a smaller sum of money to try out new games there.
Even though he says he's never bought as many games as he does now, he also says that he spend less and less time playing them. If they don't immediately catch his interest he will quit and never play them again. Sometimes the games don't even make it out of the box...
It was hard getting Sam to list the titles of games he likes, he said he's played all kinds of games except for MMO:s, and he didn't care much for strategy games. He likes has many games that he really likes but he says that they have to be put into perpective of when they were released. Both his preferences and the games have changed so much that a game he played 10 years ago might not be a game that he would enjoy today.
The games he enjoys most today however are games he can play together with his firends. They meet now and then at someones house and play either single or multiplayer games. If playing single player games, one person will play and the other will watch while chatting with each other. They may take turns being the one who plays.
Mutliplayer games is his favorite type of game since he thinks it's a good alternative to watching a movie or similar. The multiplayer games that Sam and his friends play are mostly competitive, meaning that they play against each other, not against another group via the internet. However, they would very much like to play more games that called for team collaboration. The problem is that not many of those are being made. Sam has a PC and all the newer consoles. When Sam has friends over they mostly play on the xbox360 or PS3 though.
Things that Sam is interested in are gadgets, movies, and other things a tech nerd would enjoy.
So, there is a slight difference here to our preferred user group. Sam mostly plays games on console when he plays together with his friends, but the games they play are competitive and they wish there were more games that required teamwork.
I think it's also worth noting that Sam is a bit sceptic towards indie games since many of them aren't very good.
Meet the costumer v.2.0
Natalia has done some good work in adjusting our target audience a bit. Here´s what she came up with:
Two different types that may enjoy the game. The first one is the person we want to make sure we reach if we look at the goal of the project. The second one is a person that would probably enjoy the game since it will fit well into his competitive gaming style. There might of course be people working in the game industry that enjoy competitive gaming but this gives us a bit more to work with.
User profile nr1
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Yun is 34 years old and works at a game company in Stockholm. He's played games from most genres and keeps up to date with the indie scene by visiting his favorite web sites and talking to his colleagues. Even though he is passionate about games he doesn't have as much time as he'd like to play them anymore. When he gets home from work he wants to spend time with his wife and daughter. However if he hears of a game that sounds innovative and fresh he will try to find the time to try it out. Since his time is precious he won't put time into playing games that he feels he's played thousands of times before, he can play simple games if they have something special, yes, but bad games? no. Yun analyzes the games he plays to see if there is something in them that he can use at work. Sometimes he wishes he could play them and not think about mechanics etc and just have fun but he has been a bit damaged by his job.
User profile nr2
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Claes has always loved competitive gaming. When he was younger he played CS, a lot. Claes also played WoW for several years and did a lot of pvp together with some of his guild mates. Sometimes when playing he used the tabard he got as a reward for some outstanding pvp achievement when the servers had just opened. However, after Claes started working and got into a relationship he realized that there are other things in life that are nice to do, and also his girfriend doesn't like him sitting in front of the computer all night. He still likes to play a couple of rounds of DotA with his friends at work though. He likes DotA because he is pretty good at it compared to the other people at work. Claes is 28 years old and lives in the UK.
Some demographics (they are pretty similar for both user profiles)
---------------------------------------
Income: Decent to very good
Age: 23 - 40? Put min age as 23 since they are likely to have done some studies before they started working.
Gender: Mostly male
Education: To enjoy the game they don't need any education but the primary target group would probably have at least a couple of years of higher education since they are working in the industry.
Country etc: US, UK, Nordic countries, Eastern Europe with Russia, France, the Netherlands, Japan...
Ethnic background: Any
Equipment
--------------
Equipment is likely not an issue for this target group, they probably use pretty good PCs at work and probably have decent PCs at home as well since they play/have played a lot of computer games. Will need to check Internet avaiability in different countries but people working in the game industry should at least have access to Internet at work.
more info will follow....
fredag 18 september 2009
High concept
The intensions with this project is to make a polished game that looks and feels good so that all members of the team can shine in their respective areas and attract people from the competitive games industry.
To achieve this we need to make a fairly small game with well made, up to date, appealing 3D graphics and a well balanced and fun gameplay.
Since our game is beeing developed by a small, independent team we dont have to worry about the risks of loosing massive amounts of invested money. We can instead focus on making an innovative game and experiment more with the game play mechanics and the art style.
We intend to make a visually appealing indie game with a skill-based combat system that will stand out from the boring old franchise giants. If all goes well that should earn us enough cred in the indie community to spill over into the proffesional sphere.
To achieve this we need to make a fairly small game with well made, up to date, appealing 3D graphics and a well balanced and fun gameplay.
Since our game is beeing developed by a small, independent team we dont have to worry about the risks of loosing massive amounts of invested money. We can instead focus on making an innovative game and experiment more with the game play mechanics and the art style.
We intend to make a visually appealing indie game with a skill-based combat system that will stand out from the boring old franchise giants. If all goes well that should earn us enough cred in the indie community to spill over into the proffesional sphere.
Concept sketch of a possible level
This is one of the first concepts of how our levels could look.
This is just a visual concept and the position of the objects will most likely change to make for better gameplay if we decide to start working on this level.
torsdag 17 september 2009
Meet the customer
Let´s use our crystal ball and look one year into the future. Our game is finished and available for download at let´s say Steam. Let me introduce you to one of our typical customers, Jens.
Jens is a fairly nerdy 20 year old guy from Denmark who likes videogames in general and competitive games in particular.He likes to go to LAN-partys to show his friends that he is a very skilled gamer and he loves to defeat other players in online games. Since he studies at a university his income is steady but not very high. Most of his spare cash is spent on entertainment products like new games and subscription fees for games he allready have. He doesn´t care much for things like books and tv-shows but spends most of his time on his high-end PC playing games over the internet or sometimes with his Xbox 360. He concideres himself a hardcore gamer. Some would even call him a genre addict of competitive games. Some of the Jens favourite games include: DotA, Heroes of Newerth, Warcraft 3, Battlefield and Counterstrike. He also plays some MMO's because he enjoys the PvP aspect of them. In other words, games where Jens gets to show off his "1337 skills".
Jens plays games as often as he can whether it´s at home, over the internet or at LAN-partys. He also enjoys to go to competitions but it is not his main motivation for playing. When he sits down to play he usually does it for a couple of hours at a time and sometimes entire nights.
Jens doesn´t care very much about the story of the games he play. Instead he is more focused on the games mechanics and coming up with new strategies to defeat his enemies. It´s all about showing people that he is really good at the games he play. Meeting like-minded people online and making friends at LAN-partys is of course a plus.
The reason Jens started to play our game was becouse it wasn´t expensive to buy and it catered to his needs as a competitive gamer. These four key features helped convince Jens to try our game out:
* Fast-paced competitive gameplay.
This is right down Jens alley. He loves to compete and win in games to prove his worth.
* Skill-based combat system.
As a fan of the genre Jens was getting tired of the "target enemy and spam your best attack" combat system. Our system requires some skill and not just button mashing.
* Team-based network play.
This allows Jens to form teams with his friends and enjoy the game both from his home via the internet as well as on LAN-partys.
* Customizable characters.
This lets Jens play the game the in the way that suits him best rather than having to use pre-determined classes.
Jens is a fairly nerdy 20 year old guy from Denmark who likes videogames in general and competitive games in particular.He likes to go to LAN-partys to show his friends that he is a very skilled gamer and he loves to defeat other players in online games. Since he studies at a university his income is steady but not very high. Most of his spare cash is spent on entertainment products like new games and subscription fees for games he allready have. He doesn´t care much for things like books and tv-shows but spends most of his time on his high-end PC playing games over the internet or sometimes with his Xbox 360. He concideres himself a hardcore gamer. Some would even call him a genre addict of competitive games. Some of the Jens favourite games include: DotA, Heroes of Newerth, Warcraft 3, Battlefield and Counterstrike. He also plays some MMO's because he enjoys the PvP aspect of them. In other words, games where Jens gets to show off his "1337 skills".
Jens plays games as often as he can whether it´s at home, over the internet or at LAN-partys. He also enjoys to go to competitions but it is not his main motivation for playing. When he sits down to play he usually does it for a couple of hours at a time and sometimes entire nights.
Jens doesn´t care very much about the story of the games he play. Instead he is more focused on the games mechanics and coming up with new strategies to defeat his enemies. It´s all about showing people that he is really good at the games he play. Meeting like-minded people online and making friends at LAN-partys is of course a plus.
The reason Jens started to play our game was becouse it wasn´t expensive to buy and it catered to his needs as a competitive gamer. These four key features helped convince Jens to try our game out:
* Fast-paced competitive gameplay.
This is right down Jens alley. He loves to compete and win in games to prove his worth.
* Skill-based combat system.
As a fan of the genre Jens was getting tired of the "target enemy and spam your best attack" combat system. Our system requires some skill and not just button mashing.
* Team-based network play.
This allows Jens to form teams with his friends and enjoy the game both from his home via the internet as well as on LAN-partys.
* Customizable characters.
This lets Jens play the game the in the way that suits him best rather than having to use pre-determined classes.
onsdag 16 september 2009
First screenshots from the Prototype
Here are some screenshots from our current prototype build.
I don't have time to explain how it works right now but more on that subject tomorrow!
I don't have time to explain how it works right now but more on that subject tomorrow!
First concept
The members of the group that are located in Visby are making great progress with the prototyping. We allready have a world where we can walk around and very soon we will be able to fight as well. I made a paintover of a screenshot from the prototype today just to get a feeling of things. Note that this is just a first concept. The character is an old 3D-model of mine and nothing is decided yet regarding art style and setting. We will have an art meeting tomorrow or during friday to discuss those issues.
lördag 12 september 2009
The ideas are taking shape
During our meeting today we discussed the following issues:
* Who are we making the game for?
* How are we going to get our game into their hands?
* Why would they want to play our game over any other?
* 2nd October = Presentation
* Unique selling points
---------------------------------------------------------------
Combat system
* Melee
* Ranged Attacks (Bow & arrow, guns, thrown objects)
* Healing (Bombs, Spells)
* Magic (Draw runes on the screen)
Camera/player control
* Hold button to draw shapes/swing sword
* Hold button to turn camera/player
* Cursor exists in the game world
The main thing we discussed was the combat system. If we can manage to make it the way we want, it would make our game stand out from the crowd and we would have a unique selling point. Our target audience will most likely be fans of competitive games like DotA, Heroes of Newerth or even MMO-players who like PvP combat. These kinds of games are all tactical, team based and competitive but the combat system in all of them are actually rather boring. We want the attacks themselves to require some skill and not just clicking the actionbar. For example, if you want to attack the enemy with a melee weapon you could choose to do a backhand swing by pressing the left mouse button and dragging the mouse cursor in a half circle around the left side of the character or a forehand swing by making a half circle around the right side. For ranged attacks such as spells we talked about a few different options such as dragging the mouse from your character to the character you want to attack or use the mouse to draw runes on the screen to make the character cast a spell. This will be our main area of prototyping these coming weeks.
Another thing that we need to test is the way the character and the camera is controlled and turned. We want to be able to make the character turn by using the mouse since the game will be rather fast-paced and keyboard turning would be frustrating as it would be too slow but at the same time we dont want the character spinning around while you drag the mouse cursor around to attack an enemy. Solutions to that could be for example disabeling the characters rotation while the left mouse button is pressed or only having the character turning towards the mouse while the right mouse button is pressed. This is also a thing we need to prototype to see what works best.
The last thing we did was assigning work for everyone so that people know what to do until wednesdays meeting with Troels and Adam. The people from the team who are located in Visby will most likely have an office of some sort available from tuesday so that they can sit together in one location and work. Ted and me (Kalle) who are not in Visby anymore will look into perspective and different camera angles so by wednesday we should know if we want to make the game third person or top-down.
On monday september 14th we will have a meeting with the other prototyping group to discuss distribution.
* Who are we making the game for?
* How are we going to get our game into their hands?
* Why would they want to play our game over any other?
* 2nd October = Presentation
* Unique selling points
---------------------------------------------------------------
Combat system
* Melee
* Ranged Attacks (Bow & arrow, guns, thrown objects)
* Healing (Bombs, Spells)
* Magic (Draw runes on the screen)
Camera/player control
* Hold button to draw shapes/swing sword
* Hold button to turn camera/player
* Cursor exists in the game world
The main thing we discussed was the combat system. If we can manage to make it the way we want, it would make our game stand out from the crowd and we would have a unique selling point. Our target audience will most likely be fans of competitive games like DotA, Heroes of Newerth or even MMO-players who like PvP combat. These kinds of games are all tactical, team based and competitive but the combat system in all of them are actually rather boring. We want the attacks themselves to require some skill and not just clicking the actionbar. For example, if you want to attack the enemy with a melee weapon you could choose to do a backhand swing by pressing the left mouse button and dragging the mouse cursor in a half circle around the left side of the character or a forehand swing by making a half circle around the right side. For ranged attacks such as spells we talked about a few different options such as dragging the mouse from your character to the character you want to attack or use the mouse to draw runes on the screen to make the character cast a spell. This will be our main area of prototyping these coming weeks.
Another thing that we need to test is the way the character and the camera is controlled and turned. We want to be able to make the character turn by using the mouse since the game will be rather fast-paced and keyboard turning would be frustrating as it would be too slow but at the same time we dont want the character spinning around while you drag the mouse cursor around to attack an enemy. Solutions to that could be for example disabeling the characters rotation while the left mouse button is pressed or only having the character turning towards the mouse while the right mouse button is pressed. This is also a thing we need to prototype to see what works best.
The last thing we did was assigning work for everyone so that people know what to do until wednesdays meeting with Troels and Adam. The people from the team who are located in Visby will most likely have an office of some sort available from tuesday so that they can sit together in one location and work. Ted and me (Kalle) who are not in Visby anymore will look into perspective and different camera angles so by wednesday we should know if we want to make the game third person or top-down.
On monday september 14th we will have a meeting with the other prototyping group to discuss distribution.
fredag 11 september 2009
Contact info
Today we had a meeting with Adam who asked us some important questions regarding who would want to play our game and why they would choose to play our game instead of other similar games that are out there. We also discussed how we want to get our game to the hands of our target audience. Our ambition is to distribute the game on the internet either through our own webpage or via a site like Steam.
Also attending the meeting was Natalia who is taking the course from Malmö. She works as a project manager at a company there and she is accustomed to scrum. I think she can be a great asset to us as we go into production.
As requested, here are the e-mail adresses to our team members:
kalle.henningsson [at] gmail dot com
sjodin_87 [at] hotmail dot com
gcbro [at] hotmail.com
tobias.kallkvist [at] gmail dot com
kuhneghetz [at] hotmail dot com
olofahlberg [at] gotland dot com
edin.ted [at] gmail dot com
Tomorrow we will have a meeting within the team. Expect some updates after that.
Also attending the meeting was Natalia who is taking the course from Malmö. She works as a project manager at a company there and she is accustomed to scrum. I think she can be a great asset to us as we go into production.
As requested, here are the e-mail adresses to our team members:
kalle.henningsson [at] gmail dot com
sjodin_87 [at] hotmail dot com
gcbro [at] hotmail.com
tobias.kallkvist [at] gmail dot com
kuhneghetz [at] hotmail dot com
olofahlberg [at] gotland dot com
edin.ted [at] gmail dot com
Tomorrow we will have a meeting within the team. Expect some updates after that.
tisdag 8 september 2009
Some ideas of things to prototype
During todays meeting we discussed some ideas about what we want to start prototyping. We also talked about the rules we set up yesterday and it seems that all of us agree on trying to make a competitive player vs player based game for the PC. Another topic that we talked about briefly is whether or not to use premade classes for the playable characters. I think we all agreed that customizable classes would give the game more depth and be a lot more fun than static classes but that is a design decision that we dont have to spend too much time on at this stage.
The things that we want to start prototyping are:
* perspective; third person/top down
* camera controls
* character movement/controls
* attacks/combat system
Gunnar had a fun idea of a combat system that would not just involve targeting an enemy and spamming an actionbutton to attack it. Instead you would have to drag the mouse around your character in different directions to make the character attack in that direction. I´m looking forward to seeing how that will develop when we prototype it.
The things that we want to start prototyping are:
* perspective; third person/top down
* camera controls
* character movement/controls
* attacks/combat system
Gunnar had a fun idea of a combat system that would not just involve targeting an enemy and spamming an actionbutton to attack it. Instead you would have to drag the mouse around your character in different directions to make the character attack in that direction. I´m looking forward to seeing how that will develop when we prototype it.
måndag 7 september 2009
First meeting with Troels and Adam
Today we had our first meeting with our tutors Troels and Adam. Later today, Troels will provide us with a template for this weeks assignment. It was decided that we should come up with a set of rules for the game to avoid investigating features just for the sake of investigating. We were also asked to think about appeal points for the features we wish to prototype. The rules we have come up with so far are:
* The game should be made for the PC, playable with a mouse and keyboard
* The perspective should be third person or top-down
* The game should be multiplayer
We will discuss these rules and hopefully set a few more at the meeting tomorrow.
* The game should be made for the PC, playable with a mouse and keyboard
* The perspective should be third person or top-down
* The game should be multiplayer
We will discuss these rules and hopefully set a few more at the meeting tomorrow.
söndag 6 september 2009
A team is born
A team of students from Sim 4 has finally been formed. The team consists of Tobias Källkvist, Gunnar Carnbro, Peter Sjödin, Daniel Ohlsson, Ted Edin, Olof Ahlberg and Kalle Henningsson. Tommi Lipponen who currently teaches C++ at the university may join the team when we enter the production phase.
On tuesday september 8th we will have a pitch meeting discussing ideas and wishes for the upcoming concept foundation and then we will hopefully be able to start prototyping these ideas using the Unity game engine as soon as possible.
Art and programming roles will be decided once we start production. At this phase all our efforts will be focused on finding the best game mechanics and functionality possible. Tobias and myself (Kalle) have agreed to share the administrative responsibilities.
On tuesday september 8th we will have a pitch meeting discussing ideas and wishes for the upcoming concept foundation and then we will hopefully be able to start prototyping these ideas using the Unity game engine as soon as possible.
Art and programming roles will be decided once we start production. At this phase all our efforts will be focused on finding the best game mechanics and functionality possible. Tobias and myself (Kalle) have agreed to share the administrative responsibilities.
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